


Searching in The Sun

by mothergoose



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Cecil Is a Good Boyfriend, M/M, kinda sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 16:07:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2031381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mothergoose/pseuds/mothergoose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the days stretch longer, Carlos begins to despair. Set after Capital Campaign(Episode 50). Companion piece to "Waiting in The Dark".</p>
            </blockquote>





	Searching in The Sun

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I love reading distraught!Cecil, I kinda feel like the fandom pushed aside Carlos' feelings on being trapped behind the door. I feel like after a while he might begin to panic(he is, after all, completely alone in that plane of existance[which just goes to show how much of a BAMF Dana is]) and lose his cool. So have some hysterical Carlos.

Carlos swiped his thumb over cell phone screen again, scrolling through the data he had already collected and the possible hypotheses he had come up with for getting home. As he scrolled through the notes, he came across one that clearly had not been written by him. It read:

_Carlos is being a fuddy duddy because all he has is sciency notes on his phone and not nifty things like the entire script of Dirty Dancing or cute notes from lovely boyfriends like the handsome Cecil ;) And nOW HES TryNG TO STEal thE Phoenback!!! MWha mwah!_

A wave of hysteria washed over him as his chest tightened and his eyes stung. Carlos wildly looked around, seeing nothing, seeing nobody, but the baked rocks and never setting sun and that ridiculous mountain. He looked heavenward, tears crowding around his eyes, and took deep shuddering breaths, internally chanting _I will not cry. I will not._ Because the first thing a scientist is is self-reliant. Until they aren’t anymore. 

At first, after the doors closed, Carlos had felt 96.3% certain that he could find a way back to Nightvale in about a week, two tops. As he had told Cecil numerous times over the phone, via text, or through the occasional morse code, he was a scientist and scientists were fine. Usually. Of course they kept in touch, Cecil excitedly updating him on current events and Carlos happily explaining some of the more interesting phenomena that this plane of existence had.

But as the time stretched longer and longer, he began to feel insecure and afraid, even. He found himself wheedling Cecil for just a couple more minutes to talk, to even just listened to Cecil move around the kitchen, to type up the report for the show the next day, to even hear him just breathe. Cecil had a presence about him that Carlos hadn’t realized existed until suddenly they were separated and it made him feel so terribly alone. He began to entertain new and strange thoughts the he never usually had. What if Cecil didn’t want to wait for him? Just last week they had talked and Cecil had mentioned that ex of his had come back from wherever. What if that Scoutmaster wooed his boyfriend while he was away? Earl, afterall, was from Nightvale, the place that Cecil belonged. Where Carlos didn’t belong, he thought bitterly. More frequently was the dark, nagging thought that dogged him at the very edges of his mind. 

What if he couldn’t get back to Cecil? Or Nightvale? Or really, just get out of this plane? 

It terrified him to live or exist here forever, with so little to see and, most importantly, no one to talk to. And so when a mumbled and groggy “Hullo?” wafted into the air around Carlos, he jerked so hard, he nearly pulled a muscle. Eyes shooting down to his phone, Carlos realized he had been gripping it so tight that he must have hit the Skype button. Cecil was squinting at the screen, the dark room and lamp indicating that it must be very late at night there, and Carlos suddenly felt so light he giggled a little. “Carlos?” the digitized voice asked, Cecil’s expression shifting from tired to confused. That expression quickly turned to concern as Carlos burst into great heaving sobs, hiccuping and coughing. He felt so scared at being alone but so happy because Cecil was right there. As Carlos struggled to contain himself, Cecil spoke quickly and softly, cooing, “Oh Carlos, honey, it’ll be ok! What’s wrong? Why are you crying, doll?”

Carlos laughed at the silly names(Cecil did love pet names), chest still heaving as the tears slowed. “I just...just really needed to see you…”

And they talked and joked around, Cecil doing his best to cheer up his lonely boyfriend, and Carlos felt his resolve harden once more. Why had he ever doubted the love that Cecil had for him, the love that they both shared? This was what he was trying to get back to, a person who loved him so much that he would talk even in the dead of night to make Carlos happy again. Cecil was the constant, the never changing variable in his life. He was Carlos’ sanity in this insane place, his one source of strength. And if Cecil could stay strong for Carlos, then Carlos could stay strong enough to get home.


End file.
